First nonstop to Iceland from RDU will be followed by Montreal, London and Paris
The departure of Icelandair Flight 820 to Reykjavik on Thursday evening will be the first of four nonstop international flights being added to Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s schedule in as many months.
Also returning are nonstop flights to Montreal, London and Paris that were suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while airlines have scheduled those flights before during the pandemic, only to put them off again, this time they say further delays are unlikely.
Next up, Air Canada will resume its daily nonstop flights between RDU and Montreal on June 1. The airline also flies daily between the Triangle and Toronto.
Two days later, American Airlines will fly nonstop from RDU to London’s Heathrow Airport for the first time since March 2020, when travel restrictions and fear of contracting the virus decimated air travel. American has moved to resume the flight several times since last summer, only to push it back.
American spokesman Brian Metham said the airline operates 20 flights a day between the U.S. and London and will increase it to 23, including the RDU flight, on June 3.
“We’re eager to reconnect customers in Raleigh-Durham with London,” Metham wrote in an email. “While I’m unable to provide specific sales data, London is performing very well for us.”
Finally, Delta Air Lines plans to resume its daily nonstop flights between RDU and Paris on Aug. 3. Like American, Delta has tried to re-establish its trans-Atlantic connection to the Triangle several times during the pandemic, but this time seems solid, according to spokesman Drake Castaneda.
RDU lost all international air service during the first weeks of the pandemic in 2020, when passenger traffic at RDU fell 96%.
The first to return was JetBlue’s nonstop service to Cancun, Mexico, in November 2020. Frontier Airlines now flies to Cancun from RDU as well.
Some COVID-19 restrictions remain
International air travel is rebounding as people and governments perceive the threat of COVID-19 receding and relax efforts to prevent the virus from spreading. But some rules and requirements remain, and international travelers should do their research before booking a flight.
A big one: All travelers, regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated, must show a negative COVID-19 test result taken one day before flying from overseas to the United States. The travel industry has been urging the federal government to discontinue the testing requirement for vaccinated travelers, but for now it remains.
Testing positive can mean spending days in limbo overseas, often in isolation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not traveling for 10 days after a positive test, and in any event it can take that long or more before an infected person tests negative.
Meanwhile, overseas destinations may have their own requirements for testing and vaccination. The U.S. State Department tracks COVID-19 restrictions in countries around the world and posts them at travel.state.gov/. Click on “Find International Travel Information” and look for COVID information listed by country.
RDU also has an online tool for learning about COVID-19 travel rules in countries around the world. It can be found at www.rdu.com/travel-info/travel-requirements/.
Iceland no longer requires a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country, and passengers are not screened for health reasons when they arrive, according to the U.S. embassy.
Icelandair will fly four round-trips a week between RDU and Keflavik, outside Iceland’s capital city. From there, the airline offers nonstops to about two dozen cities in Europe and encourages travelers to extend their European vacation with a few days in Iceland during a stopover.
The Icelandair service is scheduled to end in October.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 2:39 PM.
